TN gets one more sanctuary in Sathyamangalam

Finally, the state government is all set to declare an ecologically ‘complete’ and sensitive wild habitat in Sathyamangalam forest division as a sanctuary. Once a refuge for Veerappan, the forest range will now be a sanctuary for wildlife.
State forest minister N Selvaraj signed the file this week paving the way for the forest department to notify about 500 sq.km of open jungle with the Moyar river acting as the bridge between the western and eastern ghats. It will be named as Sujal Kuttai blackbuck sanctuary. In the last wildlife census, it was found that there were
about 2,000 blackbuck.
“The sanctuary is the key to genetic flow between the western and eastern ghats,’’ says a forest officer. The open jungle and the riverine ecosystem facilitates the movement of large mammals like elephants from Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary and Nilgiris North Division to the Eastern Ghats along the Moyar river.
Recent studies have revealed that there are about 10 tigers in Sathyamangalam forest division covering 1450 sq.km, including the new sanctuary. “The sanctuary will be a great boon to conservation as it will be contiguous with Mudumalai, Wayanad, Bandipur and Nagarhole sanctuaries and national parks, making it one of the largest wildlife habitats in the country,’’ says K Kalidasan, a Coimbatore-based environmentalist.
The Sujal Kuttai sanctuary, including the scenic Thengumarahada, has been found to be the only home for vultures in the state. In a census, about 150 vultures were found in the habitat. The latest to be sighted were long-billed and whitebacked vultures, said a forester in the new sanctuary, defining it as a complete ecosystem with the prey, predators and scavengers (hyenas) co-existing.

Sathyamangalam may become tiger reserve

As the magnificent big striped cats are being repeatedly spotted in the Sathyamangalam sanctuary, the state government will soon take efforts to turn it into a tiger reserve. Last week, there were as many as five direct sightings during an official survey.

In the six-day carnivore sign survey taken up by the state forest department, five tigers were directly sighted by foresters and volunteers involved in the census in Hasanur and Bhavanisagar ranges of Sathyamangalam forest division, adjoining the Mudumalai and Bandipur tiger reserves. The survey team has also found evidence that there could be four more tigers roaming these forests. When state forest minister N Selvaraj visited Sathyamangalam, the division’s forest officials briefed him on the need to make it a tiger reserve as there was solid and clinching evidence that the tigers have made the scrub jungles their home over the past few years. “Yes, I was told about the importance of Sathyamangalam forests and the need to make it a tiger reserve. We will certainly consider it,” Selvaraj told TOI.

Sathyamangalam forests link the Eastern and Western Ghats allowing gene flow between diverse populations of the two habitats. Incidentally, the Karnataka forest department has sent a proposal to make Biligiri Rangaswamy (BR) Wildlife Sanctuary, contiguous to Sathyamangalam, as a tiger reserve, officials note.

Tamil Nadu already has three tiger reserves in Kalakad-Mundanthurai, Mudumalai and Anamalai. Sathyamangalam which has been in the spotlight for the past five years for sighting of tigers could be the fourth.

Interestingly, tigers were sighted in Kodaikanal forests after a long time during the sixday survey that concluded on Thursday. A tigress and her cub were spotted playing in the wild. The forest officials are sifting through columns of data scouring for clear evidence to work out an estimate of the tiger numbers based on indirect evidence like pug marks, scats and scratches.

Tigers burning bright in western ghats

It is not official yet, but the news that there has been direct sighting of 30 tigers over six days along the Western Ghats in the state during the latest carnivore sign survey is quite encouraging. At the end of the six-day survey which concluded on February 25, forest officials, wildlife enthusiasts and volunteers who ventured out into the forests for the survey are quite thrilled by its outcome.

Rajiv K Srivastava, field director Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, said, “The feedback and the inputs from the volunteers give a very good indication of a healthy tiger population in the reserve. It is encouraging. The number of tigers is growing.’’ In 2006, there were an estimated 38 tigers in Mudumalai but this time the forest officials expect more.

The six-day census was conducted by the forest department in coordination with the Nilgiris Wildlife and Environment Association (NWEA). “We are participating in a wildlife census for the first time. We saw bears, leopards, sambars, gaur, bison and elephants. The sight of the tiger thrilled us,’’ said S Jayabharathi, a student of wildlife biology from the Govt Arts College, Ooty.

Forest officials of the Kalakad-Mundanthurai and Anamalais are not talking in terms of tiger numbers. “The core habitat is well protected and the tigers are safe,’’ said a forest officer in Anamalais. The 2008 Wildlife Institute of India (WII) estimates said there were six to eight tigers in each of these reserves adjoining Kerala. The number of tigers in TN was then estimated at 76. Says K Kalidasan of OSAI, a Coimbatore-based NGO, which coordinated the survey in the Anamalais tiger reserve, “Long-term conservation is not possible if the prey base is not increased.’’

Indirect evidence suggests movement of tigers in all the ranges of Coimbatore, say forest officers attached to the division. Tigers could have moved in from the adjoining Nilgiris biosphere, Silent Valley National Park and the upper reaches of Kerala forests abutting the division, the forest officers said.